Arthur Christiansen

Who was Arthur Christiansen?

Arthur Christiansen was a journalist, and editor of Lord Beaverbrook's newspaper the Daily Express from 1933 to 1957.

Christiansen was born in Wallasey to Louis Niels Christiansen, a shipwright, and his wife Ellen. From an early age he demonstrated a talent for writing, producing a magazine for his grammar school. At 16, he became a reporter for the Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle, where he worked for three years before moving to the Liverpool Evening Express and the Liverpool Daily Courier. He was named the London editor of the Evening Express in 1925, a position he held for a year before moving to the Sunday Express.

Christiansen made his reputation four years later, when, as assistant editor, he produced a special late-morning edition of the Sunday Express to report the R101 airship disaster.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1957, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

In 1961. he was cast as the editor of the Daily Express in the Fleet Street-based sci-fi thriller The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

Christiansen's son, Michael, also became a newspaper editor.